One of the most popular and effective fishing lures is the crankbait. Crankbaits are trolled or cast by anglers and are designed to appear like a wounded minnow traveling through the water. Crankbaits are highly effective at catching many types of fish in both in fresh water and saltwater. Anglers often take great pride in having numerous different sizes and colors of crankbaits and often have a tackle box full of just these lures, with an array of colors and patterns. Crankbaits are designed, produced, and sold by manufacturers in the United States and throughout the world.
Crankbaits are typically composed of five main parts: 1) a lure body having a shape resembling a small fish, such as a minnow; 2) a diving bill that is inserted or molded into the forward part of the lure body, causing the lure body to run deep and creating a wobbling motion as the body is moved through water; 3) hook hangers to hold the hooks, inserted or molded to the bottom of the lure body; 4) hooks, typically two treble hooks; and 5) a line tie, which is a semicircular piece of wire molded or screwed into the diving bill or molded into or screwed into a portion of lure body such as the nose of the fish-like shape. The line tie is where an angler attaches fishing line to the crankbait.
When the crankbait is pulled through water via fishing line attached to the line tie, the shape of the lure body assisted by the diving bill creates a side-to-side wobble that is thought to create a wounded minnow appearance. This wounded minnow appearance can provoke a desirable strike reaction from gamefish such as muskellunge (“muskie”), red fish, stripers, salmon, and the like.
Not all crankbaits are the constructed the same, as artisans create various designs thereof and different makes and models. Further, there is often significant variation in the movement of crankbaits sold as identical items. Thus, for example, an angler can purchase four crankbaits of the same apparent make, model, and size and get different lure motion and/or fishing results from each crankbait. The reason for this variability is that the line tie can be off of the true center axis of the lure body. What seem to be minor increments of the line tie off of the center axis prevents a crankbait from tracking “true” or straight in the overall sense as it is pulled through the water, that is, prevents the motion from evenly wobbling from side to side. A crankbait that tracks perfectly straight is said to be “in tune.” Many experienced anglers agree that a lure that tracks straighter catches more fish. Thus it is desirable to have the line tie perfectly set on the center axis of the lure body.
Some crankbaits are out of tune even when brand new. Crankbaits can also be knocked out of tune by striking a rock heavily during fishing activities, wherein the wire line tie can shift off center and thus a once “tuned” lure becomes out of tune.
Conventionally, anglers use a conventional needle nose pliers, or a slotted tuner having either a “pencil” style or a “key” style to tune the lure. If the crankbait appears to veer to the left as it is pulled through the water, the line tie is slightly bent to the right, thereby bringing the line tie more toward true “0”. In contrast, if the crankbait appears to veer to the right as it is pulled through the water, the lure can be tuned by slightly bending the line tie to the left.
Crankbait tuning thus requires a high level of experience and dexterity as well as a practiced eye, because it can be difficult to determine whether an appropriate adjustment has been made simply by looking. To the frustration of many anglers, “overtuning” (bending the line tie too far) is often constituted by any visible movement of the line tie during the tuning attempt. Complicating the difficulty is that tuning is often attempted while the user is in a boat on the water, and the movement of the boat can make tuning much more difficult or even impossible. Bad weather conditions such as wind, rain, and the like make the task even more difficult.
There are no known tuning tools that remedy the difficulty of this seemingly simply operation. Sellers of crankbait tuners invariably instruct the user to carefully and lightly bend the line tie to accomplish tuning. Even when a user with great experience and skill follows these instructions, overtuning can result.
Conventional tuning devices are rigid and imprecise in the application of force, with no inherent control in application of torque or pressure to bend the line tie. This lack of control results in the difficulties experienced by the user described above. Even if the user is greatly skilled (the inventor has 17 years of professional guiding experience) the minute increments needed to adjust the lure causes overtuning to become essentially inevitable and in some cases the lure is eventually ruined by multiple attempts to tune.
When a conventional device, such a needle nose pliers are used, the amount of force and/or torque is applied by the user. If the squeezing action by the user's hand is light, then less force is applied in the plier jaws for example. Also if a conventional plier is used and the squeezing action by the hand is heavy and very strong, then a heavy force is being applied in the plier jaws, a force equivalent to the strong squeezing action by the hand. The same factors apply in using known rigid slotted devices such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,193 or key shaped slotted devices such as Tune-A-Fish (sold at www.reefrunner.com). Conventional slotted pencil devices apply torque based only the applied force or exertion of the user. In sum, conventional devices used to tune crankbaits apply force and torque as selected by the user and subject to trial and error.
There is a need in the industry for a lure-tuning tool that allows a user to precisely apply a suitable amount of torque to a line tie to accomplish acceptable tuning sufficient to provide a crankbait that tracks “true”. There is a need in the industry for a lure-tuning tool that allows a user to precisely apply a suitable amount of pressure to a line tie to accomplish acceptable tuning sufficient to provide a crankbait that tracks “true”. There is a need in the industry to minimize the probability of overtuning the line tie of a crankbait lure. There is a need in the industry to increase the ease and efficiency of tuning a crankbait lure.